The Name of the Game
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and thirteen:  top 16  On day three of their detention together, Mike and Brittany try to entertain themselves


Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 24th cycle. Now cycle 25!

_**It's cycle 25!**__ If you'll recall, back in cycle 10 I did my top 15 of favorite things (characters, ships, friends..) in Glee, with a ficlet for each of the numbers, and a chapter fic for number 1 (stories 190 to 210). Now this time around, in order to schedule in a friend's birthday, it's a top SIXTEEN, and the number one's six-chapter fic will be split in three blocks... (5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters) It's less confusing than it seems, I promise ;) Here we go!  
**Coming in at number ten!**_

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**"The Name of the Game"  
Mike & Brittany  
Sequel to "Riding the Lightning" **

They were on day three of their week of detention, after Mike had 'rescued' her good luck charm and she'd stepped up so he wouldn't have to sit there on his own because of her forgetfulness. It wasn't bad… The monitor didn't even care what they did, so they could sit together and just do whatever they wanted. So every day they played… On the first day they had mostly just talked about classes and school. On the second day, before this one, Mike had spent the whole period painstakingly trying to shown Brittany how to play a game of cards… He didn't know if she even remembered it now, but it was okay. It was all a bit of a disaster, but a fun disaster, if such a thing existed.

Now on day three they had to find something new. Mike had gone in there, without any sort of idea, and found Brittany already sitting there, looking at a book. The way she was bent over it, it must have been interesting. At first he thought, from the size of it and the way the glossy pages were hit by the light, that it must have been a comic book or something… it wasn't. It was a yearbook… their yearbook; he had the same one, somewhere. His mother had wanted it more than he did. It was a few years old now, a project from the parents more than them.

"Hey," he spoke to draw her attention as he came to sit next to her, putting his bag on the table.

"Hello, Michael," she spoke, not looking up yet. His ears always stuck up at hearing his full name, like he was about to get scolded by his mother or father. But then he looked to the page she was on, and there was his picture and his name.

"Why do you have that?" She looked up, her eyes saying 'well it's mine.' "I mean, why did you bring it?"

"I found it last night when I was looking for my math book. And then I saw this," she turned the pages until she found one in particular. They were images from various school outings, kids running around everywhere, some posing with their friends… In one picture, in the background, she had spotted one boy, mid jump… "That's you, isn't it?" she pointed. He leaned in to see, then laughed.

"Yeah, I think so… I don't even remember this, but… yeah, that's my jacket, and my red shoes," he indicated them. "I guess I felt like jumping."

"No, but look," she dragged her finger to the left, still on the same picture, another jumper just a little further down, blonde hair all in the air from the motion of the jump, arms held out…

"Is that you?" he blinked and she nodded. Then it came back to him. "You dared me to jump after you."

"Yeah," she smirked, and he laughed again. She looked back to the book and turned the pages back. "I don't remember your hair looking like this," she indicated the picture she'd been staring at when he came in. Mike shook his head.

"Well it was picture day, you know? No way my mother would have let me go out with my normal hair." Brittany chuckled at that. He took a turn at turning the pages and found what he was looking for.

"I remember when yours was that long," he pointed at her picture.

"I liked it, but my mother got tired of undoing the knots it would get into, so I had to get it cut," she spoke, the memory making her frown. They spent the rest of the period looking through the pages, at the images of friends and classmates and people they didn't know…

"He said he was going to do something to his hair," Mike pointed to his teammate Noah's picture.

"Why, it looks good now," Brittany shrugged. "Look, she's got great hair," she pointed as they turned the pages. She looked to read the name. "Santana… Lopez."

"I think she's in my English class. She's cool," he nodded. "She has a temper sometimes, and Miss Cole will get annoyed… Makes things interesting." Brittany smiled. She turned the pages and smiled once more, pointing to a picture from a showcase at which she'd danced. "I remember that," Mike nodded, sitting up. "You were the best one out there; I remember that too."

"Thanks," she beamed and then, after a beat, she closed the yearbook and looked to him. "When are you going to join us?" He looked back at her.

"What do you mean?"

"I see you around sometimes and when there's music on it's like your body wants to move but you won't let it." He shrugged, scratching at his neck so it wouldn't look like he was looking away. "You'd be good, I have an ear for these things."

"You mean an eye?" he answered, looking back up in the process.

"That too." He didn't answer. "It'd be a lot of fun. And we don't have a lot of guys in there…"

"I have football, and then basketball…" he reminded her.

"So? You can do both. Please?" she tilted her head. He took the yearbook, opening it again.

"Okay, I know what we're going to do. The game is called 'what will I be when I'm older?'"

"An adult?" Brittany answered, like it was a quiz now. He smirked. Maybe it was evading the topic, but she wouldn't mind. He could have told her about him and his dancing, up in his room… after all, they were friends now… But he still couldn't do it… Maybe someday…

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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